Bristol Man, 23, Is Charged In New Year's Eve Shooting

BRISTOL — A 23-year-old Bristol man accused of hiring a friend to kill a Waterbury man was arrested Monday and charged in the New Year's Eve shooting.

Anthony Harris, of 1175 Farmington Ave., is accused of offering to pay a friend $50,000 to kill a Waterbury man who he suspected had given police information leading to the arrest of his brother and uncle on drug charges, an affidavit said. Harris also suspected the Waterbury man had fired shots into his Bristol home, according to the affidavit.

The friend accepted the offer and fired at the man outside a city package store, but hit a person who was with the targeted man. The victim, 22-year-old Rodney Davis of Waterbury, was shot in the chest and was treated at Bristol Hospital.

Harris, who was arrested on a warrant, was charged with accessory to attempt to commit murder, accessory to attempt to commit first-degree assault, accessory to second-degree assault with a firearm, and accessory to carrying a pistol without a permit, police said.

Harris, who has been serving time at Enfield Correctional Center on a narcotics-related conviction, was served with the warrant Monday. His case was transferred to Superior Court in Hartford. He was being held in Enfield on a $150,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15, a court clerk said.

Harris' friend who fired the shots, Delon M. Johnson, was arrested in March, and charged with criminal attempt to commit murder, seconddegree assault with a firearm and first-degree reckless endangerment, police said. Johnson pleaded quilty to the last two charges in June in Superior Court in Hartford, and was sentenced to 10 years in jail, a court spokesman said.

Harris allegedly phoned Johnson in late December, and promised him money if he killed Ronald Petty, a Waterbury man known on the street as Moot.

"He promised me a lot of money, and I mean a lot of money, if I would shoot and kill Moot for him," Johnson is quoted as telling

police in an affidavit. About 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve, Harris and two other men picked up Johnson in Hartford after they saw Moot on Union Street in Bristol, the affidavit says.

Johnson told police he got "a little tipsy," before they drove over to the M&M Discount Liquor Store, at 80 Wolcott St. in Bristol. On the ride to the package store, Johnson told police, Harris gave him a small, automatic handgun. Harris got out of the car and walked into the package store, then signaled to Johnson that Moot was approaching, the affidavit says. Johnson fired three shots at Moot, the affidavit says.

"I don't think I would have shot at him if I was sober," Johnson said in a sworn statement to police that is recorded in the affidavit. "I think he got me drunk, then used me to do his dirty work for him."

After the shooting, Harris dropped Johnson at his home in Hartford, according to the affidavit.

"Harris put Johnson up to the crime, but never paid him after it was carried out," Det. Kevin D. Hayes wrote in the affidavit